


so many as are coupled together

by seventhstar



Series: a covenant with a bright blazing star [15]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alpha Katsuki Yuuri, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Regency, M/M, Marriage of Convenience, Mutual Pining, Omega Victor Nikiforov, Regency, Slow Burn, Unexpected Visitors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-07-28 19:54:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16248722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seventhstar/pseuds/seventhstar
Summary: “You’ve a visitor, my lord,” she says. “Visitors, even. Mrs. Boot-Collins and two of her kind from the village.” She says ‘kind’ in a tone that suggests that whatever Betsy’s standards of good breeding are, Mrs. Boot-Collins and her kind do not meet it. “Should I send them off?”“Yes,” Yuuri says.“No,” Viktor says in the same moment.[part of an ongoing series of fics, telling the story of poor and scandalous trademan's son viktor nikiforov's marriage of convenience to the reclusive lord katsuki]





	so many as are coupled together

**Author's Note:**

  * For [natsubaki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/natsubaki/gifts).



> it's happening

“...did you truly not notice an entire room had disappeared?”

“It is not as if I go about counting the rooms in the house!”

“Is that not what rich people do? I’m only a poor tradesman’s son, darling, how would I—”

Despite himself, Yuuri laughs. He and Viktor have ventured out for a walk. Dr. Lee has decreed, after examining Viktor again, that the prohibition against magic can be lifted early—but Viktor still needs frequent exercise to improve his condition. So Yuuri has invited Viktor to walk out quite far with him.

“I do know how many rooms there are,” Yuuri admits, “since I maintain the house’s spell networks myself. But I hardly take a census whenever I pass! I could never have expected the room to disappear.”

“You did not wonder where I was?”

“Of course I wondered. I looked for you everywhere.”

The bank of the creek that leads away from the river is eroding. Yuuri stops to kneel down in the mud and prod at it; this creek has flooded in the past, and overrun the irrigation canals that are spelled around it to catch rising water.

As they walk, Yuuri tries not to notice all the improvements he ought to make; talk of money will poison the air. He wishes he could ask Viktor to look at the books—but no, Viktor ought to rest, not spend his precious time and energy solving Yuuri’s problems. He ought to support Viktor, but though he gives him his arm, it’s Viktor who leads him back to the house, around holes and over rocks, until they are both safely ensconced in the parlor.

Viktor’s face is damp with sweat. Yuuri deposits him on a sofa, despite his protests, and brings him cold lemonade and some hot biscuits. Viktor even condescends to eat two of them in one sitting. (Yuuri eats four. He tells himself he has been out in the fields an age and needs to.)

They split the last biscuit between them. Viktor licks crumbs from the pad of his thumb, Yuuri makes a great effort not to stare. Now is the time, perhaps. He opens his mouth to speak.

Betsy pokes her head in, and the creak of the door interrupts Yuuri just as his courage is marshaled.

“You’ve a visitor, my lord,” she says. “Visitors, even. Mrs. Boot-Collins and two of her kind from the village.” She says ‘kind’ in a tone that suggests that whatever Betsy’s standards of good breeding are, Mrs. Boot-Collins and her kind do not meet it. “Should I send them off?”

“Yes,” Yuuri says.

“No,” Viktor says in the same moment.

“But they were so rude!”

“If we don’t see them, they’ll only invent gossip about how we were rude to visitors because you were too busy bedding me on the chaise in midafternoon. At least if we see them, we can try to mitigate the damage.” Viktor smiles wryly. “Well, you can mitigate the damage. I think my reputation is quite beyond saving.”

Yuuri covers Viktor’s bare hand with his own.

“An insult to you is an insult to me,” he says. “Besides, no one will believe that. The chaise here isn’t long enough.”

Viktor surveys it and then raises an eyebrow at him.

“Not that I…have ever thought of…”

Viktor’s response, under his breath, sounds suspiciously like ‘unfortunately’. Clearly Yuuri’s hearing is failing him.

They rearrange themselves for visitors. Yuuri puts his gloves back on and with some success manages to brush off the dirt on his clothes. Meanwhile, Viktor goes to the mirror hanging on the parlor wall and twists sweaty strands of hair into curls that he tucks behind his ears.

Sarah ducks in with a fresh tea tray, which she leaves on the table. “Shall I bring them back, my lord?” she asks. “We can send them away. It might rain.”

“Are we to be intimidated by every Mrs. Boot-Collins in the country? Send them in.”

Frankly, Yuuri thinks Viktor is being cavalier about the amount of damage village gossip can do. The estate’s servants are few, if loyal. It is what their neighbors say that will determine what everyone else thinks. But he can hardly keep Viktor shut up if Viktor wants to receive them.

It’s only tea, he thinks, and wrings his hat between his hands.

“You will ruin that,” Viktor murmurs, and he plucks the hat from Yuuri’s hands just as the door opens to admit their guests.

There are three of them: Mrs. Boot-Collins, Mrs. Collins’ curate’s husband who is called Mr. Edgeworth, and a local gentlewoman named Lady Payne. Lady Payne’s husband is an attorney who has been knighted, and she never lets anyone forget it.

“Are you starting a new fashion, Lord Nikiforov?” Lady Payne asks as she curtsies.

Viktor glances down at the hat in his hands and then sets it delicately atop his head. He turns to Yuuri and poses. “What do you think? Does it suit me?”

Yuuri shrugs. _Everything does._

“I have heard so much about you, Lord Nikiforov,” Mr. Edgeworth says in a syrupy voice. “It must be such a comfort to Lord Katsuki to have you. The house has been without an omega for so long.”

“No, it hasn’t,” Yuuri says tartly. “My mother has barely been gone a year.”

Mr. Edgeworth gapes like a trout washed up on shore.

“Do you play, Lord Nikiforov?” Mrs. Boot-Collins asks. “I suppose it must be difficult for you to sing in English.”

“Alas, I am not musical,” Viktor says. “Do you play, ma’am?”

“Oh, yes,” Lady Payne butts in. “Sir Edgar is just aflutter over my playing. You ought to learn at once, Lord Nikiforov.”

“And of course,” Mr. Edgeworth adds, “any one of us would be happy to come up to play for you, Lord Katsuki. You must miss the sound of music so much now that your poor mother is gone.”

“My mother never played or sang,” Yuuri says coolly. What do they think they are about, using his mother’s memory as a bludgeon? His mother wouldn’t have tolerated it.

“Oh.”

The five of them sit in an awkward kind of silence. Yuuri begins to think a botched attempt at seduction might have been a more pleasant experience. At least Viktor would have put him out of his misery quickly.

“You must miss your family terribly,” Mrs. Boot-Collins says. “My dam writes to me weekly. She says she cannot do without me. Where did you say you were from?”

“I didn’t.” Viktor sips at his tea.

“It is in the north,” Yuuri says, recalling Viktor once saying he missed the snow. By Viktor’s raised brows, he is right. “Quite far.”

“Certainly a long way to go to marry!” Lady Payne says. “Why, my husband and I met at a local assembly, when I was just sixteen. Of course he was just Mr. Payne then but I—”

“Actually, Yuuri and I were introduced in London,” Viktor says. “Wasn’t it lovely, Yuuri?”

Yuuri has to admire his reinterpretation of the truth. He and Viktor were introduced in London, five minutes or so before they were married. The memory of how he had stared at the floor like a sullen child, refusing to even look at the face of the man he was marrying, makes Yuuri blush.

Judging by the way Mr. Edgeworth titters, he mistakes it for embarrassment of a different sort.

“Yes,” Yuuri lies. “It was lovely.”

Viktor gives him a bright smile.

The call seems to drag on and on and on, with each of their visitors keen to dissect Viktor. None of them are bold enough to ask, directly, about Viktor’s scandals, so they pick around the subject instead—where are Viktor’s parents? What did they do? What seminary did Viktor attend? Did he like his governess? What modiste does he favor? Viktor’s answer to the last of their questions makes Lady Payne gasp. It must be an expensive place; Yuuri takes note of it for later. He still means to buy Viktor some clothing more to his tastes.

Lady Payne launches, for the second time, into the tale of how her husband was knighted. She is longwinded and either does not know it or does not care. Even Mrs. Boot-Collins and Mr. Edgeworth appear bored as she rambles.

“…and of course, St. James is quite another thing from London—”

“Yes, where did you say your house in town was?” Viktor asks.

“Oh, we do not keep one. It…it does not agree with my health.”

“I agree completely,” Viktor says. “Town is very hectic, is it not? Country life is more sedate. Much more suited to you, I would imagine.”

Lady Payne squints at him, clearly trying to decide whether she is being insulted. Yuuri has to stifle a laugh. He is fairly certain Lady Payne and Sir Thomas Payne cannot afford a house in town. Lady Payne seems the sort who would enjoy the gossip of the season. Personally, Yuuri thinks that houses in town are overrated. They make it too convenient for people to visit him, and the last time Yuuri had been in town—in a futile attempt to distract himself from the end of his mourning period—he had gotten falling down drunk at the Leroy ball.

“The country is very pleasant,” Yuuri says. “Much more…restful. Intimate.”

Mrs. Boot-Collins hides a snort behind her hand.

“It looks as though it might rain,” Yuuri says. “Perhaps you ought to go, home, Mrs. Boots-Collins. I would not wish for you to get caught in a storm.”

There is sunlight streaming in through the parlor windows. The slice of sky visible is robin’s egg blue, without a cloud in sight. Mr. Edgeworth raises an eyebrow and opens his mouth, no doubt to retort.

“It is no good arguing with him,” Viktor says. “Yuuri is very conscientious about health.”

“Yes,” Yuuri agrees. Thank god Viktor is here to rescue him. “I would be very sad if you were to fall ill. I’m sure your spouses would feel the same.” Though the way Lady Payne runs on, her husband might prefer her silent. He smiles a strained smile, and at that moment, mercifully, Betsy opens the door and says that the carriage is waiting. She’s probably listening at the door. Yuuri ought to pay her more.

Mrs. Boot-Collin leads them out, after all three of them have extended an invitation for Viktor and Yuuri to visit them in turn, and Mr. Edgeworth has suggested they throw a ball. They both ought to escort them out, but Yuuri decides, loudly, that Viktor looks pale and needs to rest.

“Well,” Viktor says, in the hallway when they are alone again. “That was a success.”

“It was?”

“Don’t you think so?”

“They had no business bringing up my mother.”

“They mean it as a compliment to her.”

“They mean it as an insult to you.”

“Yes,” Viktor says. “Luckily you were here to defend me.”

“Do you miss it?” Yuuri asks. “London. Do you miss it? I know we live quietly here.”

“Hardly at all,” Viktor says. He smiles. “I want for nothing.”

“You said you missed it hardly at all, not that you never missed it. You must want for something.”

“I misspoke.”

“You did not misspeak.” Yuuri lays a hand without thinking on Viktor’s arm. “Can you not tell me?”

Viktor blinks at him, apparently surprised that Yuuri even wishes to know. He looks down at Yuuri’s fingers on his wrist.

Yuuri, acutely aware of his look, does not withdraw it.

“You are kind,” Viktor says. “But there are things I wish that you can not give me.”

“We have a house in town. We can go whenever you wish.”

“I have no desire to go, I assure you.”

“Are you sure?”

Viktor laughs. “Yes, I am sure.”

His amusement is disheartening. Yuuri wonders what it is Viktor desires that he cannot have. He no longer thinks Viktor holds material things so highly; it must be something else.

Or _someone_ else.

“I don’t want you to be unhappy,” Yuuri says.

“I am not unhappy,” Viktor assures him. “But thank you, Yuuri. That is generous of you.”

“And thereto I plight thee my troth,” Yuuri says, softly enough that he does not think Viktor hears. It is not generous of him at all. What Yuuri feels when Viktor smiles, he is beginning to realize, is entirely selfish.

**Author's Note:**

> bonus points to anyone who catches what yuuri's quoting


End file.
